


Better Together

by idola



Category: Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-04
Updated: 2020-06-04
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:42:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24542539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idola/pseuds/idola
Summary: The only thing standing between Judar, Hakuryuu, and their honeymoon is a sixteen hour flight.
Relationships: Judal | Judar/Ren Hakuryuu
Comments: 2
Kudos: 37





	Better Together

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this on a sixteen hour flight forever ago then promptly forgot that it existed due to jet lag lol. i just found it again so i figure i might as well put it out there

They weren't calling it a honeymoon, but that was exactly what it was and everyone knew it.

Two guys don't live together for three years just to book a flight together to one of the world's most popular tourist destinations as friends. They do it because they're basically in a common law marriage and want the perks of it, too, not just the arguing over whose turn it is to do the dishes part.

Also, Alibaba and Morgiana had just gotten married and they had to steal their thunder _somehow_.

They settled on Reim for three reasons:

One (also known as the only reason they’d give if asked): neither had been before, which meant there was little to argue back-and-forth about.

Two (also known as the reason they’d never admit to, even on their deathbeds): Alibaba, a reasonably trustworthy source, had recommended it.

Three (self explanatory): Aladdin, that piece of shit, had suggested Sindria which was supposed to be their top choice, which meant they couldn’t go. Because if they had anything in common, it was the obstinate need to be contrary to a fifteen year old.

So that was that. Reim it was.

Remano, the capital of Reim, was sixteen hours from Rakushou by plane.

Judar had been all over the western continent, so he was pretty used to it. But that didn’t mean he was alright with it. He absolutely dreaded it.

“Sixteen hours!” Judar kept saying, weeks to days to hours in advance. 

“I know, I know,” Hakuryuu took to replying. “But it's nothing you haven’t done before. So stop complaining.” It was Hakuryuu’s first time going any farther than Sindria, but he was more of the suck it up and soldier on type. The bring a novel or two type. If only he could convert Judar to that point of view.

The plane was on time and they got settled into their seats without delay.

It was a wide plane, the kind with three seats in a row on either side with four lined up in the middle, totaling ten people per row. With about fifty rows, the plane had a total capacity of around five hundred people.

The first couple hours were alright. Judar brought music to listen to, so mouthing along was enough to keep him busy. The novels that Hakuryuu brought weren’t great, but they weren’t too horrible either.

Then the first meal came. Judar picked around at it and sighed.

Here was the fun part.

“Oh, this is good.” Hakuryuu said after swallowing a piece of fruit. It was more than a bit of a white lie, but sometimes it was fun getting Judar to do things that he didn’t want to do just because he’d do them if Hakuryuu urged it.

“Bet it's from a can,” Judar said.

“Do you think I would lie to you?” Hakuryuu asked with his best neutral expression. He held a piece of pineapple up for Judar to try.

He took the bait. Slowly his dubious expression faded into an indifferent sort of approval. “It's edible, I guess.”

“See? And they're bringing ice cream around later, for people who finished their trays.”

“The hell, this isn’t some primary school cafeteria,” Judar muttered as he shoved a piece of cabbage in his mouth, then quickly washed it down with water before chewing.

“Complain all you want. You’re still eating it,” Hakuryuu teased.

“Sh-shut up!”

Who got ice cream really had nothing to do with if their tray was empty or not and everything to do with who made eye contact with a flight attendant at the right time. But Judar, as usual, didn’t pay attention to that at all. Hakuryuu had said so, so he was right.

His blind faith was charming. Not that Hakuryuu would ever take advantage of it or anything.

Just as Hakuryuu guessed, the stewardess took until Judar's tray was just about cleared to make her rounds with dessert. She handed him his without a second thought, taking the tray with just a couple pieces of pear left in exchange.

“Why didn’t you eat your pear?” Hakuryuu asked.

“I'm sick of them.”

“...I've never seen you eat pears, and I’ve known you for as long as I can remember.”

“I used to have them all the time in Parthevia.”

“Judar, you haven't been to Parthevia since you were seven.”

“Doesn’t mean I can’t still be sick of them!”

“Only you,” Hakuryuu said. He’d given up on trying to understand Judar’s oddly specific food loves and aversions long ago for his own sake.

The next few hours were a bit longer than the first few. It wasn’t that time was moving any slower. Hakuryuu knew that. But he just couldn’t get comfortable in his seat. As Judar liked to say, Hakuryuu had refined tastes like a prince only when it was as inconvenient as possible.

Maybe that was true. But still.

It was bad on hour six, but by hour ten, it was hell. And they were only two-thirds there.

Hakuryuu swiveled his head around, trying to pop his neck, for the third time in as many minutes. He could see tomorrow already: sore and sleep deprived, wondering why people thought travel was _relaxing_ of all things. The longer he lay there, the longer he was convinced it was a ploy to get people to spend their life's savings on airfare.

It was already nighttime according to Rakushou time. The plane’s lights were out and most of the passengers were sleeping, Judar included.

But here Hakuryuu was, wide awake and popping his neck. It was just so uncomfortable.

When the man next to him unbuckled his seat belt and shuffled away to the bathroom, Judar groaned and yawned. Soon after his eyes fluttered open, they fixed on Hakuryuu.

"Not gonna sleep?" Judar mumbled. He’d lowered his volume significantly from earlier lighthearted arguments, but the only other sound in the cabin was the white noise of the plane moving through space, an almost-silence that stood out only when broken by someone’s voice.

A little self-conscious about waking people up, Hakuryuu whispered back. “Curling up sideways like that hurts my back. I'll sleep at the hotel.”

“You’re like an old man already.”

“Oh, shut up. Don’t act like you’re getting any younger.”

Judar reached out from below the paper-thin blanket the airline provided to pull Hakuryuu down to his shoulder.

“…This isn't comfortable either.”

“Did I ask!”

Hakuryuu smiled. It was a rough gesture, but a kind one nonetheless. “This really isn’t as bad as you made it out to be. Flying, I mean. The worst part is the seats. The rest is pretty alright.”

“It’s not as bad as normal," Judar said. "Got lucky, I guess.”

“All the other times you travelled were with Gyokuen, weren’t they?”

“Her or Falan. Sometimes Ithnan.”

The usual, then. No wonder he hated flying so much.

“It’s my first time not flying alone,” Hakuryuu said. Needless to say he preferred it this way. But he did prefer the shorter six hour flight to Sindria. 

As Judar would so eloquently say, sixteen hours was sixteen hours.

Hakuryuu eventually dozed off against Judar’s bony shoulder. When he next woke, it was to the smell of a bubbly flight attendant’s coffee, which he took graciously.

Judar was still awake. Hakuryuu let him sleep as he finished a novel. Its ending was far better than the two hundred pages leading up to it. A welcome surprise. 

Hakuryuu popped his neck again. A voice overhead announced that they were preparing to land, so everyone should fasten their seatbelts.

Hakuryuu shook Judar’s shoulder. “Hey, we’re almost there.”

“Mmh?”

“I said, we’re almost there.”

Judar yawned, then stretched. But he didn’t fix his posture or sit up. “Ten more minutes?”

Hakuryuu laughed. “It’s been sixteen hours and now you want more?”

“…Uh, no, you’re right.”

“What do you want to do once we land?” Hakuryuu asked.

“Sleep more.”

For once, Hakuryuu agreed. His neck was in desperate need of a real bed. “Sounds good.”


End file.
